86 



SCIENCE. 



are sore all the time. We are afraid of them ; do not 

 like them ; glad they have gone away." 



This tradition differs somewhat in the particulars 

 when told by different individuals, but the main points 

 are essentially the same. Many will not tell it all ; 

 some, only parts of it. The ridiculous story about the 

 dogs is firmly believed by the present Eskimo as the 

 origin of these animals. 



That the Tunuk have been seen of late years in 

 the west is not improbable — that is, natives, different 

 in dress and stature ; but they were most likely the 

 tribe known as the Pelly Bay Eskimo from the north 

 shores of Hudson's Straits and from Fox Channel, 

 they being larger and more robust than the Cumber- 

 land Eskimo of the present day. It is certain that 

 since the whalers have begun coming among the 

 Cumberland Eskimo, and introduced venereal dis- 

 eases, they have deteriorated very much. They now 

 almost depend upon ships coming, and as a conse- 

 quence are becoming less expert hunters, and more 

 careless in the construction of their habitations, which 

 are merely rude temporary shelters made at a few 

 minutes' notice. Great suffering often ensues from 

 living in these miserable huts. The seal skin that 

 should have gone to repair the tent is bartered to the 

 whalemen for a little tobacco, or some valueless 

 trinket, which is soon thrown aside. The men are 

 employed to catch whales, when they should be hunt- 

 ing in order to supply the wants of their families ; and 

 the women, half clad, but sporting a gaudy calico 

 gown, instead of their comfortable skin clothes, and 

 dying of a quick consumption in consequence, when 

 they should be repairing garments or preparing skins, 

 are loafing around the ships, doing nothing for them- 

 selves or any one else. 



The Cumberland Eskimo of to day. with his breech- 

 loading rifle, steel knives, cotton jacket, and all the 

 various trinkets he succeeds in procuring from the 

 ships, is worse clad, lives poorer, and gets less to eat 

 than did his forefathers, who had never seen or heard 

 of a white man. 



There is a practice among them that is probably of 

 long standing, and is regularly carried out every 

 season, of going into the interior or up some of the 

 large fjords after reindeer. They generally go during 

 the months of July and August, returning in Septem- 

 ber, to be on hand when the fall whaling begins. 

 The purpose of this reindeer hunt is to procure skins 

 for their winter clothing. Nearly all return to the 

 sound to winter. They have regular settlements, 

 which are hardly ever entirely deserted at any season. 

 I he principal ones are known as Nugumcutc. Nian- 

 tilic, Newboyant, Kemesuit, Armanactook, Oosooad- 

 luin, Ejujuajuin, Kikkerton. and Middliejuacktuack 

 Islands, and Shaumeer, situate at different points on 

 both sides of Cumberland Sound. During the winter 

 the) congregate at these points in little villages of 



snow huts. 



The present principal headquarters are at the K ik- 



kerton Islands, or at Nuntilie, according to which 

 point the whalers winter. The old harbor of knu;i 

 suit, once the winter harbor of whalers and a favorite 

 resort of the Kskimo, is now deserted, except by a few 



superannuated couples, who manage to catch enough 



seal to live on. 



As a rule, the present race is of short stature, the 

 men from five feet three inches to five feet six. There 

 are some exceptions, but they are in favor of a less 

 rather than a greater height. The women are a little 

 shorter. The lower extremities are rather short in 

 proportion to the body, and bow-legs are almost the 

 rule. This probably arises from the manner in which 

 the children are carried in the mother's hood, as well 

 as the early age at which they attempt to walk. The 

 habit of sitting cross-legs may also have a tendency to 

 produce this deformity. Their hands and feet are 

 small and well formed. Their hands are almost 

 covered with the scars of cuts and bruises. It seems 

 that in healing the injured part rises, and is always 

 afterwards disgustingly prominent. There is a great 

 variation in the color of their skin, and a description 

 that would answer for one might not apply at all to 

 another. Even among those that are of pure breed 

 there are some whose skins are no darker than a white 

 man's would be if subjected to the rigors of wind and 

 cold, and the never-removed accumulation of soot and 

 grease. Others again seem to have been " born so." 

 The children, when young, are quite fair. The 

 eyes are small, oblique, and black or very dark brown. 

 The hair is black, straight, coarse, and very abundant. 

 It is rarely wavy or curly among the full-blooded 

 Innuites. 



There are, of course, exceptions to the above in 

 case of half-breeds. Their faces are broad and flat, 

 with rather large lips and prominent cheek-bones. 



Infanticide is not practiced among the Cumberland 

 Eskimo at the present day. I have learned from some 

 of the most intelligent that this barbarous custom was 

 in vogue in former times, however. Among the 

 natives of Repulse Bay, and those living on the north 

 shores of Hudson's Straits, it is practiced to a con- 

 siderable extent, especially with the tribe known as 

 the Pelly Bay natives. The practice is confined 

 almost entirely to female children, the reason being, 

 they tell us, that they are unable to hunt, and conse- 

 quently of little account. It seems to have been 

 referable to the same cause among the Cumberland 

 Eskimo. Their intercourse with the whites seems to 

 have modified some of the most barbarous of their 

 primitive habits. 



Twins are not common, and triplets very rare. The 

 males outnumber the females. Infanticide may, to 

 some extent, be the cause ; but lung diseases, which 

 are alarmingly prevalent, seem more fatal to the 

 women than to the men. 



Children are often mated by the parents while they 

 are still mere infants. There is such an extreme 

 laxity of morals that the young women almost invari- 

 ably become wives only a short time before they are 

 mothers. 



It is impossible to say at what age the women cease 

 to bear children, as they have no idea of their own 

 age, and i'cw are able to count above ten. Puberty 

 takes place at an early age, possibly at fourteen with 

 the female. They are not a prolific race, and it is 

 seldom a woman has more than two or three children, 

 and often only one, of her own; still many, or almost 

 all, have children ; but inquiry will generally divulge 

 the fact that some of the children have been bought. 

 Almost every young woman has or has had a child, but 

 the identity of the father is in no wise necessary in 



